The Thief of Worlds by Bruce Coville

Author:Bruce Coville [Coville, Bruce]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Random House Children's Books
Published: 2021-04-27T00:00:00+00:00

I was too tired and cold to worry about consequences. Still holding the lantern, I stepped into the barn and said, “We are just trying to get out of the storm.”

“Great Galloping Gazoompas!” cried the voice. “As if the cold and the dark weren’t enough, are there now giants in the land?”

“We are only passing through,” said Lura. “We mean you no harm.”

“I’ve heard that before. And I’ve said it often enough myself. Not that it usually did me any good. Still, since I can see you, I might as well let you see me. I’ll trust you to use your great size to protect me should the householder decide to venture out and take care of his stock. It would be unseemly of you to simply crush me.”

A moment later a dim glow, not much brighter than what came from our ever-weakening lanterns, blossomed a few feet away from us. Sitting on a bed of purple straw and holding a lantern of his own was a youngish-looking man not more than three feet tall. He was dressed in ragged robes. Scraps of cloth were bound around his feet in place of shoes, and gloves without fingers protected the palms of his hands. Sharp, steady eyes peered out from a lemon-yellow face that seemed to have more nose than it needed. Vivid scarlet hair, parted in the middle, hung down to his shoulders.

In the low light, I could make out a green animal in a stall behind him. Setting aside its color, it was a bit like a cow…if a cow was a third of its regular size and had a head shaped like a bowling ball. In that way, it reminded me of the “horses” in Lura’s world—close enough to consider it a cow, but just barely.

“Have a seat,” said the little man, gesturing toward another stack of straw. Or maybe it was hay. Since it was purple and the light was so low, it was hard for me to tell, despite my country-boy roots.

The little man stood and said, “My name is Amberjon.”

“I’m Hurricane.”

“And I’m Lura.”

“Pleased to meet you both.”

“You don’t seem to have a problem with us being, um…giants,” said Lura.

Amberjon shrugged. “I’ve spent most of my life in the circus. I’m used to freaks.”

I felt like I should be offended but decided it wasn’t worth getting upset over.

“So what brings you huge, lumbering creatures to our dark and benighted world?” he asked.

“You seem to be taking the darkness lightly,” I replied, stupidly proud of myself for answering his pun with one of my own.

“I mentioned the circus, right? My first job was as a clown. I have to take things lightly.”

“What’s a circus?” Lura asked.

Clearly the world we were in now was more like mine than it was like hers.

“It’s a kind of show,” I told her. “Clowns are supposed to make you laugh.”

“Or terrify you,” put in Amberjon. “I often did that, especially with the little ones. It was fun but I always felt a bit guilty afterward.

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